M'ee' machine

My latest vinyl project was to fancy up my ee machine (netbook).  As my husband and my mom have both pointed out I should have put the M facing the other way so it would look right when it is open. But I went with looking right closed.  I took the flourish appart and then added an M and grouped it all back together.

First complainer is next week's cook!

Do you ever have times when something you say to your kids totally backfires?  This project is one of those.

When I was growing up my grandmother had a cross stitch hanging up in her house (and I'm trying to remember if it is still up in her new house).  It has a picture of an old fashioned stove and the following motto:

"Sit at the table, take a look.  First complainer is next week's cook!"

I'm probably the only one whose kids grumble about supper right?  My 6 year old especially.  Supper time just for whatever reason ticks him off and for the longest time he would be grouchy every.single.day about having to eat supper (I work nights and leave right after supper so that is probably why).  So I decided to replicate grandma's motto in vinyl over our huge doorway into the living room.  I've been putting it off because it is such a huge project (the doorway is 8 feet!) and I needed to keep this wooden church thing there.  So I finally had some time the other day and after I pimped my mixer I started to work on this project.  Before I get into the nitty gritty of it I should explain how it backfired.  The kids started to sound it out and so we read it together and then they decided to start complaining bitterly about supper.  Why?  Because the only thing they can "cook" is TV dinners.  And for whatever reason TV dinners are a hot commodity in this house.  I don't know if it is because there is usually a desert with it or that you can pick your own or that there is sometimes no vegetable...  So they thought if they complained every night we could eat TV dinners instead....  SIGH.

So to create this project, first I measured my doorframe.  8 feet.  I figured I would leave 2 feet on each side empty so that left me with 4 feet wide and I think it was 9 or 10 inches tall.  So I created that space and wrote my words until I got the font right and the right size.  Then I set my mat for 12 x12 since my vinyl that I was using was 12x12  I had 3 sheets but I only used 2.  So then I worked until I got the words all on 2 sheets of vinyl.  I cut them apart by lines.  Then I cut my transfer tape to 4 feet and laid it out on the floor and lined my words up for the first part-I actually started with the longer one  (first complainer is next week's cook).  I marked my spot, leaving room for the church (DH's grandmother's church-also the church where we got married!) and applied my letters.  Notice I picked a thicker font so they applied well.  Then I repeated it for the top line and centered it and added them.  Done!
 

pimp my mixer

I had an unexpected delightful night off last night (was put on call!) so I spent a good chunk of today messing around the house.  I transformed several partially used bags of fruit into buckles and cobblers for this winter and then worked on a couple vinyl projects. 

The first project I did was to pimp up my mixer.  I had been looking at it 2 ways.  One was to put hibiscus all over it and the other to do a subway art type thing.  I ended up doing a mix and honestly it is a little... busy.  But it makes me smile.  I put on it several of my favorite things to bake, an M (for Margaret) and some hibiscus...  My FIL who is partial to Hawaiian shirts says that my mixer has it's Hawaiian shirt on... :)

wall vinyl part one

So the real reason I really, really wanted a silhouette cameo was to do wall vinyl.  I've been obsessively looking at it on etsy for a long time.  So it wasn't very long before I used some birthday money to buy the vinyl kit!  I had spent a long time previously collecting quotes on laundry and I had finally hit on the quote to use. So my first project was this.  I love, love. love it!

 

I do have some tips though.  Cut (just through the vinyl) between the lines of words (so between the line of "the most memorable days" and the line of "usually end in the".  It makes weeding so, so, so much easier!  And I had a hard time telling that the part of the transfer paper that I was supposed to use was the part with lines on it!  But it is.  Otherwise it went up great and I love to see it.

fall pumpkin and leaf hanging

I love fall and the kids love to decorate for holidays!  I was looking at fall ideas (mainly for leaves but that isn't the direction I ended up going!) while babysitting the hash browns I was cooking for supper.  I hate cooking hashbrowns because of the babysitting factor but I'm working on clearing out the random bits and bags of stuff in the freezers and cupboards.  Meals this week have been...interesting.

Anyways.  I fell in love with these pumpkins.  I found a piece of cardstock in my stash that was pumpkin colored on the top and greenish orange on the bottom.  I ungrouped the images and cut the shapes in the pumpkin color.  I then cut out the stripes etc out of black.  The backs were solid orange cardstock with the cut outs of the shapes (except the stripes which I just drew in with a sharpie).  The stems I cut out in black.  After I glued them together I laminated them.

For the leaves I cut them out of yellow/gold cardstock.  I took the same image (outline only) and made it a little smaller and cut it out of black and used it to make the cut outs pop.  I laminated them as well.  Then I punched holes in the leaves and pumpkins and hung them with black yarn.  I love the way they look and how they sway in the breeze when the windows are open.

This project probably took me a good 3-3.5 hours.  I started after kidlet bedtime (8-8:30 and worked until midnight.  At that point I had all the pumpkins done and laminated and the leaves cut out but not weeded yet.  But at that point my eyes were too tired to weed so I finished up the next day.